Photo: Rodw · Public domain84% of Locking’s residents live within a 5-minute walk of a park
The Mendip Hills National Landscape begins 0.2 mi from the town’s edge. Parks and playing fields in Locking add up to 2.7 ha for every 1,000 residents; the typical UK town has 2.1. Footpaths add up to 31 km in the town and the kilometre around it, 2.4 for every square kilometre. Locking grades B+ for the outdoors: #21 of 49 in Somerset. A character grade: it isn’t part of the overall grade.
Locking grades B+ for the outdoors
Each chart is every UK town of 1,000 or more on one measure: the green bar is Locking, the dashed line the typical town. The number is the share of towns it beats; the five are averaged and the average ranked again.
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Graded, never part of the overall grade (like History and Civic life). It measures what is mapped: OS Open Greenspace leaves out woodland and open-access land that isn’t a park, and OpenStreetMap’s rural paths are more complete in some places than others.
Locking is 17th of 60 UK towns its size for the outdoors
The 60 UK towns and cities of 3,700 to 4,000 people with an Outdoors Grade. Hover a dot for its figures; tap one for its page.
Against towns its size, Locking stands out most for park space per resident: only 16 of the other 59 have more.
Show as a table
| Town | Outdoors | Green space | Near a park | Path per km² | Protected | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trimley St Mary Suffolk | A+ | 2.3 | 100% | 3.8 | 34% |
| 2 | Batheaston Somerset | A | 3 | 84% | 4.6 | 71% |
| 3 | Cuckfield West Sussex | A | 6.7 | 70% | 4.9 | 49% |
| 4 | Walter's Ash and Naphill Buckinghamshire | A | 3.7 | 50% | 5.3 | 79% |
| 5 | Bethesda Gwynedd | A | 2.5 | 90% | 3.2 | 49% |
| 6 | Disley Cheshire | A− | 1.2 | 100% | 4.6 | 22% |
| 7 | Mulbarton Norfolk | A− | 7 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 8 | Kingswood Surrey | A− | 4.6 | 27% | 6.3 | 17% |
| 9 | Welwyn Hertfordshire | A− | 2.6 | 100% | 4 | 0% |
| 10 | Esh Winning County Durham | A− | 3.2 | 100% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 11 | Old Basing Hampshire | A− | 13.6 | 92% | 3.1 | 0% |
| 12 | Barnt Green Worcestershire | B+ | 37.8 | 81% | 3.7 | 0% |
| 13 | Colden Common Hampshire | B+ | 2.7 | 82% | 2.8 | 35% |
| 14 | Stanstead Abbotts Hertfordshire | B+ | 2.5 | 92% | 4.9 | 0% |
| 15 | Long Melford Suffolk | B+ | 6.9 | 87% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 16 | Papworth Everard Cambridgeshire | B+ | 4.3 | 100% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 17 | Locking Somerset | B+ | 2.7 | 84% | 2.4 | 23% |
| 18 | Lyme Regis Dorset | B | 1.4 | 60% | 2.5 | 56% |
| 19 | Greasbrough South Yorkshire | B | 2.9 | 80% | 4.7 | 0% |
| 20 | Queenborough Kent | B | 1.6 | 100% | 2 | 0% |
| 21 | Mayland Essex | B | 2.6 | 91% | 1.8 | 0% |
| 22 | Stoke Poges Buckinghamshire | B | 7.7 | 76% | 3.3 | 0% |
| 23 | Romanby North Yorkshire | B | 3.1 | 100% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 24 | Framlingham Suffolk | B | 3.7 | 73% | 4.2 | 0% |
| 25 | Mytholmroyd West Yorkshire | B | 1.8 | 88% | 5.8 | 0% |
| 26 | Pirbright Surrey | B | 2 | 84% | 5.7 | 0% |
| 27 | Whitwell Derbyshire | B− | 1.7 | 100% | 3 | 0% |
| 28 | Rhuddlan Clwyd | B− | 1.8 | 85% | 0.9 | 8% |
| 29 | Glanaman Dyfed | B− | 3.3 | 83% | 0.8 | 29% |
| 30 | Cholsey Oxfordshire | B− | 2.3 | 55% | 2.5 | 81% |
| 31 | Alford Lincolnshire | B− | 2.1 | 85% | 1.5 | 26% |
| 32 | Cardigan Dyfed | B− | 1.9 | 69% | 1.4 | 13% |
| 33 | New Romney Kent | C+ | 2.5 | 79% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 34 | Kingskerswell Devon | C+ | 3.5 | 76% | 1.2 | 0% |
| 35 | Bar Hill Cambridgeshire | C+ | 1.4 | 93% | 3.5 | 0% |
| 36 | Pewsey Wiltshire | C+ | 1 | 64% | 3 | 91% |
| 37 | Troedyrhiw and Pentrebach Mid Glamorgan | C+ | 2.5 | 84% | 1.5 | 0% |
| 38 | Norton Fitzwarren Somerset | C+ | 1.3 | 35% | 5.2 | 6% |
| 39 | Forest Row East Sussex | C+ | 0.3 | 51% | 3.4 | 94% |
| 40 | Coggeshall Essex | C | 2.1 | 84% | 2.5 | 0% |
| 41 | Silver End Essex | C | 2 | 88% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 42 | Cubbington Warwickshire | C | 1.5 | 100% | 1.7 | 0% |
| 43 | Bromyard Herefordshire | C | 0.9 | 100% | 2.1 | 0% |
| 44 | Desford Leicestershire | C− | 1.6 | 90% | 2 | 0% |
| 45 | Holton le Clay Lincolnshire | C− | 2 | 59% | 1.4 | 8% |
| 46 | Lydd Kent | C− | 1.7 | 66% | 0.9 | 0% |
| 47 | Fulbourn Cambridgeshire | C− | 1.7 | 74% | 2.4 | 0% |
| 48 | Kingston Bagpuize Oxfordshire | C− | 0.8 | 100% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 49 | Sutton Cambridgeshire | D | 1.9 | 82% | 1.1 | 0% |
| 50 | Kempsey Worcestershire | D | 0.9 | 40% | 3.9 | 0% |
| 51 | Pen-pedair-heol Gwent | D | 0.9 | 80% | 2.3 | 0% |
| 52 | Puckeridge and Standon Hertfordshire | D | 0.9 | 59% | 3.2 | 0% |
| 53 | Wilsden West Yorkshire | D | 0.6 | 61% | 3 | 0% |
| 54 | Sutton Bridge Lincolnshire | D | 1.3 | 79% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 55 | Willingham Cambridgeshire | D | 1.4 | 73% | 0.8 | 0% |
| 56 | Llanbradach Gwent | D− | 1.2 | 52% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 57 | Long Buckby Northamptonshire | D− | 0.6 | 52% | 1.9 | 0% |
| 58 | Penyffordd Clwyd | D− | 0.7 | 36% | 1.6 | 0% |
| 59 | Llanharry Mid Glamorgan | D− | 0.6 | 50% | 1.3 | 0% |
| 60 | Indian Queens, Fraddon and St Columb Road Cornwall | D− | 0.7 | 27% | 1.6 | 0% |
Parks, footpaths & countryside
Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it. The dashed line is Locking’s built-up area.
How close Locking’s homes are to a park
Each square is 1 in 100 residents: green lives within 400 m of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace).
About 600 people live further than that. Playing fields count, so a park within reach isn’t always one with paths or trees; 25 playgrounds are mapped in and around the town, about one for every 153 residents.
The Mendip Hills National Landscape is 0.2 mi away
Protected landscapes within 30 km, by direction and distance from the edge of the built-up area; circle size shows each one’s area. National Landscapes were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023.
23% of the land within 5 km of Locking is National Park or National Landscape, more than 79% of UK towns.
4 waymarked walks pass through or near Locking
31 km of footpaths, bridleways and rights of way are mapped in Locking and the kilometre around it, 2.4 km for every square kilometre (the typical UK town has 3.0). Bars show each route’s kilometres within 2 km of the town.
Close to home, the Hutton Millenium Walk has 10 km of local walk within 2 km of the town. 3 regional routes pass through, including the The Butcombe Trail, The Mendip Trail and West Mendip Way.
Waymarked walks are OpenStreetMap walking routes. Public rights of way are only as complete as the map in each area.
The best walking months in Locking: May to July and September
The town’s 1991–2020 averages (Met Office HadUK-Grid) and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have 12½+ hours of daylight, highs of 15 °C or more and little rain for the town.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 8.3 | 9.9 | 11.7 | 13.8 | 15.6 | 16.6 | 16.2 | 14.6 | 12.5 | 10.6 | 8.8 | 7.9 |
| High (°C) | 9 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 12 | 9 |
| Rain (mm) | 87 | 64 | 58 | 57 | 64 | 61 | 69 | 82 | 72 | 98 | 102 | 102 |
April is the driest month (57 mm) and July the warmest (highs of 22 °C). Winter days are short, about 8 hours of daylight in December, and 102 mm of rain falls in December, the wettest month. Frost comes on about 33 nights a year. The climate in Locking →
25 playgrounds and the nearest beaches
Mapped within 2 km of the town in OpenStreetMap, against the typical UK town its size per resident. Named places are listed with directions; unnamed ones are only counted.
The nearest beaches
Locking is inland. These are the nearest named beaches, measured from the edge of the town.
Check the water before you swim. The Environment Agency tests designated bathing waters from May to September and publishes a rating for each beach.
Every named place, with directions
Viewpoints 1
Plus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.
Hills and peaks 1
Nature reserves 1
Playgrounds 25
Plus 22 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Campsites 1
The outdoors in nearby towns
The nearest towns of 1,000+ within 12 miles. Tap a town for its outdoors page.
| Town | Outdoors | Green space, ha per 1,000 | Near a park | Protected within 5 km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locking | B+ | 2.7 | 84% | 23% |
| Hutton 1.0 mi | A | 1.8 | 100% | 22% |
| West Wick 1.4 mi | A− | 1.6 | 100% | 16% |
| Banwell 1.7 mi | B+ | 1.7 | 100% | 38% |
| Weston-super-Mare 1.9 mi | A− | 1.2 | 87% | 8% |
| Kewstoke 3.3 mi | A− | 1.3 | 74% | 1% |
| Winscombe and Sandford 3.4 mi | B+ | 3.5 | 52% | 38% |
Hutton, 1 miles away, grades A, the best next door: every resident lives within 400 m of a park.
Questions about the outdoors in Locking
Is Locking near a National Park?
The nearest protected landscape is the Mendip Hills National Landscape, 0.2 mi south of the town’s edge. It covers 198 km² and was designated in 1989.
What are the best walks near Locking?
4 waymarked walking routes pass within 2 km of the town, including the Hutton Millenium Walk, The Butcombe Trail and The Mendip Trail.
What is the nearest beach to Locking?
Berrow Sands, 5.3 mi from the edge of the town, then Clevedon Beach (6.7 mi). Locking itself is inland.
How many people in Locking live near a park?
84% of residents live within 400 m, about a 5-minute walk, of a public park, garden or playing field (Census 2021 output areas against OS Open Greenspace). The typical UK town is 83%.
When is the best time of year for walking in Locking?
May to July and September: the longest days, the warmest afternoons and the least rain of the year, from the Met Office 1991–2020 averages.
Is Locking good for walking?
About average for paths: 2.4 km of footpath and right of way per square kilometre, more than 43% of UK towns. For park space per person it beats 65% (2.7 ha per 1,000 residents).
How is the Outdoors Grade worked out?
From five measures, each placed among UK towns of 1,000 or more: public green space per resident, the share living near a park, National Park or National Landscape within 5 km, footpaths per square kilometre, and the sea within 5 km. It is a character grade and isn’t part of Locking’s overall grade.
Where Locking’s outdoors figures come from
- Parks and green space: Ordnance Survey OS Open Greenspace (parks and gardens, playing fields, play spaces, and their access points). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- National Parks and National Landscapes: Natural England and Natural Resources Wales boundaries, areas and designation dates, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Footpaths, walking routes, beaches and things to do: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License (ODbL), via Geofabrik, 16 October 2026.
- Historic parks, listed buildings and monuments: Historic England, National Heritage List for England, Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Rain and temperature: Met Office HadUK-Grid 1991–2020 averages for the town; daylight calculated from its latitude.
- The sea: ONS Countries (December 2024) boundaries clipped to mean high water. Residents near a park: ONS Census 2021 output areas.
- Grade: TownRatings’ Outdoors Grade, ranked against UK towns only.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.